Samsung warns over malwarey Wave smartphones in Germany

Early users of Samsung S8500 Wave smartphones could be in for a nasty surprise, following the discovery that some of the devices shipped with malware pre-installed on memory cards.

The 1GB microSD card that shipped with the Bada platform-based "iPhone killer" came installed with Windows-based malware that attempted to infect PCs with a Trojan once they are connected or paired with the smartphone.

Samsung said the snafu was restricted to smartphones supplied to customers in Germany, promising further shipments in the country and elsewhere will be virus free, mobileburn reports.

Anti-virus firm F-Secure explains that the problem stems from infected autorun.inf and a file called slmvsrv.exe on the memory card. It reckons a small number of users have been hit by the problem, which probably stems from the use of uninfected Windows PC on either the production line or during testing.

The incident represents another entry in the growing list of digital devices that have shipped pre-pwned with malware. Previous examples have included digital photo frames from Samsung that came infected by the Sality worm back in December 2008, and the infection of microSD cards on HTC Magic smartphones supplied by Vodafone Spain with the Mariposa botnet client.

After initially downplaying the incident, Vodafone was eventually forced to admit as many as 3,000 of its customers were potentially exposed to the malware. ®